So when we first moved in, the upfront costs were probably around like
$15,000 because we had to pay first month's rent, the security deposit and
then the broker's fee. Hi, welcome to my New York City apartment.
My name is Nikki, I am 26 and I live in New York City in a one-bedroom
apartment with my husband and we pay $3,800 a month.
I'm a data scientist, and on the side I run a little Instagram called "
Justahomey" that's about home decor.
When we first moved in, it was $4,000 and that was like right at the edge
of our budget. But this past year when we renewed our lease, we were able
to negotiate it down to $3,800.
How I really wanted it to feel was like warm and cozy, especially because
we're in the middle of the city.
It's like a real hustle and bustle outside.
So I just wanted to be a place where when we came in, it felt really
comfortable and homey.
Since the pandemic, my husband and I have both been working from home, so
we've definitely had to, like, readjust a couple of things.
My favorite thing about this apartment is probably the kitchen.
It's like an open-plan kitchen and it has a lot of counter space and it's
modern. One of the biggest ways that we try to save money is by cooking
and not eating out just because that can add up really fast.
So in order for us to be motivated to cook, we just wanted to have a
kitchen that was like, you know, you felt good being in it.
My least favorite thing about our apartment is probably the lack of
natural light. We're north and east facing.
I think, if anything, during the pandemic, the lack of natural light has
gotten to my head. I just think given like all the other things that this
apartment had, it was something that I would have to compromise on.
I mean, having natural light doesn't save me money, like having like a
like a good kitchen does so.
My husband and I, we were going to get married in October 2019, and we were
only going to be in the city because we were traveling back and forth
between here and California.
And we had about a week time in the city where we could look for our
apartment. We used a service called Loftey, which is a brokerage, which
helped us line up all of our open houses and like one or two days.
And so for this apartment, we had seen it on StreetEasy and so we just
told our broker, "Hey, we found this place, we want to see it." And he set
up an open house for us and we got to come.
And that's how we found the place.
So for the application process, because it's a co-op, it's a little bit
more strict than normal.
So we had to, of course, show, like our bank statements, proof of income.
We also had to get personal and professional references.
We also gave like a full financial statement.
So all of our assets and everything we're invested in.
It definitely takes some effort to collect all that.
But once we have that in, it was a couple of weeks.
And then you also have to go through an interview with the board of the
co-op. So we came here and we sat down with like five people
on the board and they just asked us questions and it was pretty
casual. But I think they just wanted to, like, get to know us.
When we first moved in, the upfront costs were probably around like
$15,000 because we had to pay first month's rent, which was $4,000, the
security deposit, which was also $,4000, and then the broker's fee, which
was 15 percent.
So that was like $7,000 ish.
So it ended up being a total of $15,000.
We love this neighborhood, we're less than a five minute walk from Trader
Joe's, Whole Foods, H Mart, the subway station, like everything is near
here. I think our apartment is like in between 6000 and 700 square feet.
I came from a tiny apartment that was like 300 square feet.
So this definitely feels a lot bigger.
And we're only two people and we like each other.
So I guess it's not a big deal to be in this space.
So this is our kitchen.
As you can see, there is a pretty good amount of counter space, at least
for New York City. And I really like the stove.
This is like the fan so actually all the smoke when you're
cooking goes up into this fan.
I can reach it if I tiptoe.
That's nice. We don't use it that often.
We also really like this deep sink.
I just feel like it makes it really easy to wash dishes when, like, the
water is not splashing everywhere.
We also have the dishwasher in here, which is also a must have.
The kitchen is really modern and it was like newly renovated.
So we try to like, warm it up with like a wooden clock and some like
wooden things out on the counter.
This is our fridge, which we also really like because it's like built into
or like flushed against the wall.
So it doesn't take up extra space, which is great.
We didn't realize that the fridge wasn't magnetic.
So there's a little Snoopy thing.
This is what happens. So this is our dining
area. We just put it right next to our kitchen.
Our dining table is a CB2 dining table that I think is originally around
like $300. But we got it off Facebook Marketplace for like $100.
We also got our bar stools, which are West Elm bar stools, that are usually
like $200 each.
And we got two from Facebook marketplace for $150 total.
I worked at my dining table for like six months and then as soon as I
started feeling a little pain, I was like, I need to get a desk.
And it's a standing desk, which is super nice.
So yeah.
So this is our living room.
We've, I think, made it really cozy with this big rug that definitely like
brings the space together.
This is where we basically spend all of our time.
We have a bookshelf with all of our books.
We actually like took the couch like significantly farther away from the
wall. And behind all of this is our storage.
So you have like all of our suitcases or half of our suitcases back here.
So it's like one, two, three suitcases.
So this is the bathroom.
It's also been renovated.
So it's pretty modern and clean, which we love.
You got like all the storage cabinets with mirrors.
And my favorite part about the bathroom is the rain shower.
So this is our bedroom, obviously, it's a little bit smaller than the
living room, but we just didn't really prioritize, like getting a big
bedroom. So we've got our bed right in the middle.
My husband over there working and his little desk area.
This is our big closet.
These are my clothes.
And we've got some clothes in this dresser, some of Dylan's clothes.
And then he's a lawyer.
So he has to wear suits every day to work.
So this is like his suit section, but it's been untouched for the past
eight months. I keep like all these storage containers under the bed.
So this is the door to the patio, but it's raining right now.
So if we open it, our room is going to get flooded.
This is our bed. We didn't have a headboard for a while, but we just got
this headboard that's actually like it amounts to the wall.
So you stick it on with, like, velcro strips.
So it's not like attached to the bed.
We just like didn't really invest in our bed frame or like a headboard
that much. It's like one of the things I don't really want to splurge
on. Rent is definitely way
more than what we'd have to pay if we lived somewhere else.
And I think we're very aware of that.
But it definitely like hurts a little bit.
But I think given that we're in the middle of Manhattan and just New
York City, we get to like, enjoy being so close to everything.
I think that's kind of what it takes.
I think for the rent that we're paying, we got a really good deal.
We don't really know how long we're planning on staying.
We just renewed our lease.
So we're definitely here for another year.
And I think we're just going to take it year to year.
We did want to buy.
I mean, we do want to buy eventually.
But yes, in New York, the New York market is just pretty tough.
It really sucks to, like, rent and just like throw money out the...
Throw money out the door every month.
But yeah, just buying. I just don't think we're ready for there yet.